Medieval Wars 500–1500

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WARFARE

MEDIEVAL WARS

500–1500

This digital edition first published in 2013

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Indexers: Malcolm Henley, Michael Forder and Penny Brown

With thanks to Patrick Mulrey, Ben Way and Martin Dougherty for their assistance

Copyright © 2013 Amber Books Ltd

ISBN: 978-1-78274-119-0

All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for the purpose of review no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the publisher. The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the author or publisher, who also disclaim any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specific details.

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Titles available in the Encyclopedia of Warfare series:

Ancient Wars

c.2500BCE–500CE

Medieval Wars

500–1500

Early Modern Wars

1500–1775

Revolutionary Wars

1775–c.1815

Imperial Wars

1815–1914

World Wars

1914–1945

Modern Wars

1945–Present

CONTENTS

POST-ROMAN BRITAIN 500–1100

EARLY MEDIEVAL SCOTLAND 500–1100

WARS OF THE FRANKS 500–1000

WARS OF THE GERMANIC MIGRATIONS 500–750

WARS OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE 500–1000

CHINESE SUI/TANG DYNASTY 581–950

WARS OF THE TURKISH EMPIRES 600–1299

KOREA 600–1100

CHINESE NANCHAO WAR 650–774

MUSLIM EXPANSION 624–1100

NORSE EXPANSION 800–1066

WARS OF NORMAN ENGLAND 1066–1200

WARS OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 900–1259

WARS OF THE BALKAN AND SLAVIC PEOPLES, 900–1250

CHINESE SONG, JIN, YUAN AND MING DYNASTY WARS, 960–1644

SCANDINAVIAN KINGDOMS, 1157–1471

THE IBERIAN PENINSULA AND THE RECONQUISTA 1000–1250

INDIAN WARS 1000–1200

SOUTH-EAST ASIA 1000–1200

BYZANTINE WARS 1000–1453

THE CRUSADES 1096–1291

First Crusade 1096–99

Crusader-Turkish Wars 1119–49

Second Crusade 1145–49

Crusader-Turkish Wars 1153–87

Third Crusade 1189–92

Fourth Crusade 1202–04

Crusader-Bulgar Wars 1205–08

Fifth Crusade 1213–21

Crusader Battles 1244

Seventh Crusade 1248–54

Crusader–Turkish Wars 1268

Eighth Crusade 1270

Crusader–Turkish Wars 1289–91

RUSSIAN/RUSSO-SWEDISH WARS 1142–1500

THE CELTIC WEST – IRELAND AND WALES 1150–1500

JAPANESE GENPEI WAR 1180–85

MONGOL WARS 1190–1402

Conquests of Genghis Khan 1211–27

Mongol Campaigns 1232–1336

Conquests of Tamerlane 1370–1405

TEUTONIC AND LIVONIAN WARS 1198–1500

INDIA AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA 1200–1400

FRENCH AND ANGLO-FRENCH WARS 1200–1337

FIRST BARONS’ WAR AND ENGLAND 1215–24

ICELAND 1246

EASTERN EUROPEAN AND OTTOMAN WARS 1250–1500

WARS OF SICILY, SARDINIA AND ITALY 1250–1500

MONARCHIC, IMPERIAL AND NOBLE WARS OF WESTERN EUROPE 1250–1500

THE IBERIAN PENINSULAR AND BALEARIC ISLANDS 1250–1500

WARS OF SCOTLAND 1263–1500

SECOND BARONS’ WAR, ENGLAND 1264–67

JAPANESE GENKO WAR 1331–33 AND FOURTEENTH-CENTURY BATTLES

HUNDRED YEARS WAR 1337–1457

ETHIOPIAN WAR 1445

WARS OF THE ROSES 1455–85

SWISS-BURGUNDIAN WAR 1474–77

SPANISH-MUSLIM WARS 1481–92

AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS

HOW TO USE THE MAPS

KEY TO THE MAP SYMBOLS

BATTLES AND SIEGES INDEX

GENERAL INDEX

MAPS

Frankish Empire, c. 730–900

Roncesvalles, 778

Dara, 530

Byzantine Empire, c. 1000

Ad Decimum, 533

Casilinum, 554

Alexandria, 619

Pliska 811

Tang China, 800

Campaign in Yodong, 645

Badr, 624

Medina, 627

Walaja 633

Damascus, 635

Tours, 732

Abbasid Empire, 750–1258

Ostia, 849

Viking Campaigns, 900

Maldon, 991

Clontarf, 1014

Nowegian Invasion, 1066

Stamford Bridge, 1066

Hasting, 1066

Campaigns of William the Conqueror, 1066–69

Emergence of Hungary

Lechfeld, 955

Legnano, 1176

Lake Poyang, 1363

Tumu, 1449

Brunkeberg, 1471

Alarcos, 1195

Muret, 1213

Decline of the Byzantine Empire, 565–1430

Kleidion, 1014

Pecheneg Raids, 1048–54

Manzikert, 1071

Constantinople, 1453

First Crusade, 1096–99

Siege of Jerusalem, 1099

Harran, 1104

Lisbon, 1147

Hattin, 1187

Arsuf, 1191

Constantinople, 1204

La Forbie, 1244

Lake Peipus, 1242

Dysert O’Dea, 1318

Shrewsbury, 1403

Kurikawa, 1183

Mongol China, 1250

Empire of the Great Khan, c. 1206–1370

Kalka River, 1223

Leignitz, 1241

Mohi, 1241

Campaigns of Hulagu Khan, 1262–64

Bun’ei, 1274

Ankara, 1402

Grunwald, 1410

Expansion of Delhi Sultanate, 1206–1351

Bouvines, 1214

Nicopolis, 1396

Vitkov Hill, 1420

Varna, 1444

Belgrade, 1456

Vaslui, 1475

Malta, 1283

Castagnaro, 1387

San Romano, 1432

Marchfeld, 1278

Nájera, 1367

Falkirk, 1298

Bannockburn, 1314

Halidon Hill, 1333

Evesham, 1265

Sluys, 1340

Hundred Years War, 1337–1457

Crécy, 1346

Poitiers, 1356

Agincourt, 1415

Verneuil, 1424

Orléans, 1428–29

Formigny, 1450

Towton, 1461

Wars of the Roses, 1455–85

Bosworth Field, 1485

Nancy, 1477

FOREWORD TO THE SERIES

by Dennis Showalter

The Encyclopedia of Warfare offers five characteristics justifying its possession. First, it is chronological. Its entries reflect a fundamental characteristic of history. History is linear. It starts somewhere in time. It goes somewhere in time. Its events interact in a temporal context. And the encyclopedia’s chronological perspective enables making connections that otherwise might remain obscure. It contextualizes, for example, the 1147 siege of Lisbon with the Crusader-Turkish wars of the same period – and in the process demonstrating the comprehensive aspect of Christian–Muslim rivalry. Lisbon was far from Jerusalem only in terms of miles.

The encyclopedia is also comprehensive. It eschews a Western-centric perspective that too often sacrifices understanding for familiarity. The chronological chapters are subdivided by time and place. Thus they integrate the ancient wars of China and of South and South-East Asia, the battles of early Rome and those of Ireland in the twenty-fifth century BCE (a single entry, to be sure, but meriting consideration!) Cross-referencing cannot be easier. And that cross referencing enables not merely juxtaposition, but comparison on a global scale of war’s methods and war’s consequences.

The encyclopedia is concise. Its entries honour a time-tested formula. They address ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘why’, and thereby offer frameworks for further investigation of taproots and ramifications. But that does not mean a ‘one size fits all’ template. Events recognized as important – Hattin, Gettysburg, the Somme – are more fully developed without distorting the essentially economical format. Nor are the entries mere narratives. They incorporate analytical dimensions relative to their length and insightful whether phrases, sentences or paragraphs – like the comment that Crusader Jerusalem’s 1187 surrender to Saladin involved ransoming most of the population ‘at reasonable rates’!

The encyclopedia is user-friendly and clearly written. Not only are its more than five thousand entries individually intelligible. The graphics synergise with the text, enhancing rather than challenging or submerging it. The maps in particular are models of their kind, both accurate and informative.

Finally the encyclopedia is concentrated on warmaking. It eschews military history’s framing concepts, whether economic, cultural or gender, in favour of presenting war at its sharp end. That enables covering the full spectrum: wars and revolutions, campaigns and counter-insurgencies, battle and sieges. And in turn the encyclopedia’s format facilitates integrating, rather than compartmentalising, war’s levels and war’s aspects. In these pages Marathon and Hastings, the rise of the Roman Empire and the British Empire, become subjects for comparison and contrast.

The Encyclopedia of Warfare, in short, admirably fulfills the definition of a work that provides information on many elements of one subject. Its value, however, is also in context. This work makes broader contributions to military history’s reference apparatus, and to its reference mentality, on two levels. The encyclopedia complements the electronic era’s meme of ‘six degrees of separation’. The idea that everything is no more than six steps away from everything else is a natural byproduct of websurfing, where a half-dozen mouse clicks can lead far away indeed from the original reference point. It also encourages diffusion: engagement on peripheries at the expense of the centre.

The Encyclopedia of Warfare encourages and facilitates refocusing on war’s essential elements: the planning, conduct and result of using armed force. Diffusion is a natural aspect of the currently dominant approach to military history as an academic discipline. The concept of pivotal events has been overshadowed by an emphasis on underlying structures: reaching out from the operational towards the institutional, the political and the social dimensions. War’s sharp end at best jostles for place. It can lose out to an intellectual disdain that is also aesthetic and moral. Warfare, in the sense of making war, is arguably to the twenty-first century what sex allegedly was to the Victorians. It involves emotions nice people do not feel and actions nice people do not perform. Writing about it becomes the new pornography, pandering to appetites best left neither nurtured nor acknowledged.

The encyclopedia contributes balance and perspective to this discourse. Its contents reinforce the specific, unique nature and function of armed forces compared to any other institutions. Its entries demonstrate that warmaking has had a direct, significant impact on human affairs; that combat has fundamentally altered history’s course in both short and long terms. To understand this is to understand the world in which we live. And The Encyclopedia of Warfare enables that understanding in an impressive fashion.

DENNIS SHOWALTER

June 2013

Medieval Wars 500–1500

The wars of the medieval period were brutal affairs, conducted primarily at close range with edged and impact weapons, supported by the bow and arrow and the crossbow. Yet by the end of the era, gunpowder weapons were starting to reshape the nature of the battlefield, from infantry battles to siege warfare against fortresses.

Post-Roman Britain 500–1100

■ CAMLANN, 537

The Annales Cambriae record the deaths of King Arthur and Mordred, often interpreted as belligerents. Gildas’ contemporary descriptions of internal discord suggest civil war, but neither this nor the location are certain.

■ ARFDERYDD, 573

Gwendoleu of Arfderydd, the area encompassing Hadrian’s Wall and Carlisle, fought against Peredur and Gywri of Strathclyde. The Annales Cambriae record that Gwendoleu fell and Merlin went mad.

■ DEORHAM, 577

The forces of Gloucester, Cirencester and Bath united to dislodge Ceawlin’s ‘Wessex’ forces from Hinton Hill, overlooking the Avon valley. The towns were defeated and their kings Connmail, Condida and Farinmail were slain. The victory extended Ceawlin’s power from the Solent to the Thames and the Severn Estuary, isolating the West Country Britons from those of the Welsh Marches and Wales.

■ DEGSASTAN, c. 603

Aidan, king of the Scotti, attempted to halt the expansionist warfare of Ethelfrid of Northumbria. Ethelfrid defeated the numerically superior army at Degsas’ Stone. His brother, Theobald, was killed with all his men.

■ CHESTER, 616

Ethelfrid of Northumbria vanquished an army from the British kingdoms of Powys and Rhos, possibly allied with the Anglo-Saxon Cearl of Mercia. Despite heavy losses, Ethelfrid was victorious and King Selyf Sarffagadan of Powys and Cadwal Crysban of Rhos fell. Notably, 1200 British monks from Bangor-on-Dee were slaughtered. The victory isolated the British kingdoms in Wales from those of Strathclyde and Rheged in the north.

■ HATFIELD CHASE, 12 OCTOBER 633

Edwin of Northumbria was defeated by an alliance of Cadwalla of Gwynedd and Penda of Mercia. Edwin was killed, his army destroyed and Northumbria fragmented as Cadwalla pursued a year of rapine in the north.

■ HEAVENFIELD, 634

Oswald of Northumbria, possibly with allies from Dal Riata, defeated Cadwalla’s numerically superior forces. Oswald took a defensive position alongside Hadrian’s Wall and hemmed in Cadwalla’s advancing army.

■ MASERFELTH, 642

Penda of Mercia defeated Oswald of Northumbria. The location is uncertain; contenders include Oswestry, ‘Oswald’s Tree’. Tradition states Penda had Oswald’s body ritually dismembered and displayed in a tree as a sacrifice to Woden.

■ WINWAED, 655

Oswy of Bernicia defeated the superior forces of Penda of Mercia and his Deiran and East Anglian allies. Mercians and their allies were killed, including the East Angle Ethelhere. Oswy beheaded Penda.

■ INVASION OF NORTH WALES, 1063

Harold Godwinson led a land and sea campaign from Gloucester to curb the power of Gruffudd ap Llewellyn, ‘King over all of the Welsh’. Harold attacked Rhyddlan, razed Gruffudd’s fleet and put his men to flight. Harold secured the submissions of Welsh sub-kings as Tostig led a campaign of plunder. Gruffudd was murdered by his own men and Harold sent his head to Edward the Confessor.

■ NORTHUMBRIAN REVOLT, 1065

Following a series of murders, the northern aristocracy rebelled against Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria, slew his men and declared him an outlaw. The lords of Northumbria and Mercia marched south to confirm Morcar of Mercia as their new Earl and plundered the area around Northampton. Harold Godwinson allied himself with Morcar against his brother. Tostig fled into exile in Flanders and sent emissaries to Harald Hardrada of Norway.

Early Medieval Scotland 500–1100

■ DUNNICHEN, 20 MAY 685

Ecgfrith of Northumbria attempted to reinforce his power in northern Britain in an attack against the Pictish Kingdom of Fortiu, to the north of the Mounth. The southern Pictish zone above the Forth acknowledged Northumbrian suzerainty, but Bridei of Fortiu challenged Northumbrian power and harassed its allies.

The Northumbrians marched into north Angus near the Lake Lunn Garan, an area marked by deep hills, a narrow pathway and boggy terrain. Feigning retreat, the Picts led Ecgfrith’s men into a narrow mountain pass where they were ambushed. Ecgfrith was killed and the greater part of his army slaughtered. The defeat marked the independence of the Pictish kingdoms from Northumbria and the end of their tributary status. The recovery of lands from Northumbrian control coincided with the rejection of the newly established See at Abercorn, which was symbolic of Northumbrian-sponsored ‘Roman’ Christianity.

■ CARHAM, 1018

Huctred, Earl of Northumbria, marched against Malcolm II of the Scots Kingdom (south of the Forth and Clyde) and Owain of Strathclyde. Huctred was defeated and killed and the Scots gained control of Lothian.

■ DUNSINANE (BATTLE OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS), 1054

Siward of Northumbria led land and sea forces against Macbeth of Scotland, following Scottish attacks on Northumbria. Battle was met north of the Firth of Forth on the feast of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. Siward was victorious; 3000 Scots and 1500 English fell and Macbeth put to flight. The English regained control of Cumbria, installing Malcolm III as King of Strathclyde.

■ LUMPHANAN, 15 AUGUST 1057

Malcolm III of Scotland mortally wounded his rival Macbeth at an engagement north of the Mounth. Retreating over the Cairnamounth pass, Macbeth staged a last stand and was defeated. He died at Lumphanan.

■ ALNWICK, 13 NOVEMBER 1093

Malcolm of Scotland led his fifth and last invasion of northern England, besieging the castle at Alnwick. Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, set out to relieve the castle. Although lacking the manpower to engage the Scots in open battle, Robert succeeded in taking them unawares and attacked Malcolm’s besieging forces before the ramparts. Malcolm and his son were both killed, resulting in ongoing dynastic struggles in Scotland.

Wars of the Franks 500-1000

■ VOILLE, 507

Clovis’ victories over the Alemanni east of the Rhine and the Burgundian Kingdom on the Rhone valley brought the Franks into the orbit of the Gothic kingdoms and the scene of Mediterranean politics. Despite the mediation of Theodoric, Clovis moved against the Visigothic kingdom of Aquitaine. The superior army of Alaric II of Toulouse met Clovis’ forces in the northern marches of Visigothic territory. Fighting took place with javelins and hand-to-hand combat, the Goths deserted the field and the Senatorial leaders of the Auvergnats under the command of Appollinarius were all killed. Clovis killed Alaric and plundered his treasury at Toulouse. He drove the Goths from Angoulême and his son, Theuderic, subdued the Visigothic kingdom south to the Pyrenees. Clovis was made consul by the Emperor Anastasius.

■ VEZERONCE, 25 JUNE 524

Following the death of Clovis, his four sons continued the Frankish Wars against Burgundy. Clotair and Childebert finally defeated Gundomar and his Ostrogothic allies and the Burgundian Kingdom was annexed into the Merovingian lands.

■ WOGASTISBURG, 631

Dagobert I sent three armies recruited from the Austrasians, Alemanni and Lombards to stem the growing cohesion of Slavic power united under Samo, once a Frankish merchant. Dagobert’s armies were heavily defeated, probably in Bohemia.

■ COMPIÈGNE, 26 SEPTEMBER 715

The first in a series of battles in the Frankish civil wars following the death of Pepin of Heristal. Pepin’s grandson Theudoald succeeded him briefly as Mayor of the Palace to Dagobert III. Theudoald was ousted in favour of Ragenfrid of Neustria and Pepin’s illegitimate son, Charles Martel, was declared mayor by the nobles of Austrasia. Ragenfrid defeated Theudoald with the support of Eudo, Duke of Aquitaine.

■ COLOGNE, 716

Chilperic II and Ragenfrid, Mayor of the Palace of Neustria, led a force against Austrasia. A simultaneous invasion was led by their ally Radbod of Frisia. Charles Martel, recently escaped from imprisonment by Plectrude and Theudoald in their power base at Cologne, retreated rather than face insuperable odds. Cologne fell after a short siege and Chilperic II and Ragenfrid were declared king and mayor respectively by the Austrasians.

■ AMBIEVE, 716

Charles Martel defeated the army of Chilperic II and Ragenfrid of Neustria. Attacking as they rested at midday, Charles Martel employed a feigned retreat to draw them from their defensive position into open ground.

■ VINCY, 717

Charles Martel routed the troops of Chilperic II and Ragenfrid of Neustria. Having pursued them to Paris, Charles Martel moved against Plectrude in Cologne and secured the remains of Pepin’s treasury.

■ SOISSONS, 718

Chilperic II, Ragenfrid and Eudo, Duke of Aquitaine were defeated by Charles Martel’s army of veterans. Ragenfrid fled to Angers, Eudo and Chilperic II to lands south of the Loire. Eudo handed Chilperic II over to Charles Martel in return for recognition of his Dukedom. On the death of Chlothar IV, Charles Martel recognized Chilperic II as king in return for royal legitimization of his mayoralty.

■ THE BOARN, 734

Charles Martel’s army was ferried over the Aelmere to the Boarn, where he defeated and killed Poppo, king of the Frisians. Looting and destruction of heathen temples followed. Charles Martel annexed the Frisian kingdom.

■ RONCESVALLES, 778

The rearguard of the Frankish Army was ambushed and defeated in the Pass of Roncesvalles by an alliance of Christian Basques of Pamplona and the forces of the Emir of Cordova.

■ BALLON, 22 NOVEMBER 845

Charles the Bald of West Francia was defeated by the numerically inferior troops of Nominoe, Duke of Brittany. The Bretons lured the Frankish troops into the treacherous marshlands between the Oust and the Aff.

■ SOISSONS, 923

The climax of the rebellion by West Frankish nobles against Charles III (the Simple), led by his brother, Robert, Count of Paris. Charles III was defeated and deposed and Robert was killed.

Wars of the Germanic Migrations 500–750

■ THE ICE OF LAKE VANERN, c. 530

Onela of Sweden was defeated by the exiled Swedish princes Eanmund and Eadgils and the Geatish King Heardred. The battle, fought on the frozen lake, is recorded in Beowulf and Norse sagas.

■ ASFELD, 552

Audoin, leader of the Lombards and allied to the Emperor Justinian, defeated the